thinkLaw Annual Institute

What is the thinkLaw Annual Institute?

The thinkLaw Institute is much more like a retreat than a conference. Come ready to dream big about the world as it ought to be, and be ready to do intensely practical work to make that world a reality. We will be applying everything we learn directly to YOUR context and content.  

Expect both close collaboration with your district cohort AND building alliances with new friends who share your role, your challenges, your “I didn’t know anyone else thought like this” way of being.  

We are intentionally spending three days in a beautiful space, and will be embedding time for rest, exploration, and community building into the agenda, because we believe it should not be a luxury to laugh and learn at the same time. 

Sign Up for an Interest Call!

Annual Institute & 2025-2026 Cohort Partnerships

thinkLaw partners with a limited number of schools, districts, and networks each year with a comprehensive, wrap-around model that gives teachers and leaders: 

Supplementary Curricular Resources

Easy-to-implement supplementary curriculum that shifts students’ beliefs about themselves as critical thinkers and teachers’ beliefs about what students are capable of.  

Powerful, Practical Professional Learning

Concrete, instructional strategies – the moves –  that unlock the rigor of the high-quality instructional materials districts have already invested in, through participation in thinkLaw’s Annual Institute. 

Movement Building Coaching

Coaching to help teachers and leaders share the power of these instructional moves across teams, departments, and buildings, becoming ambassadors of a critical thinking revolution. 

Why Join Us Next Year?

From Colin Seale, thinkLaw Founder & CEO:

"We need a movement right now in education because that’s what our students deserve."
Administrator
Cohort: Mattawan Consolidated Schools, MI

2024-2025 Institute Highlight Reel:

Here’s how your team can join us for thinkLaw’s Annual Institute and be one of our 2025-2026 cohort partners: 

  • Step 1 (Winter 2024-2025): Schedule an initial interest meeting here. Please invite 2-3 other instructional leaders (Assistant Superintendents, Chief Academic Officers, Directors of Curriculum & Instruction) and at least 1 building principal to join this 30-minute call with Colin Seale, thinkLaw’s Founder & CEO. We’ll learn about your school or district instructional priorities, current challenges, and teacher needs, and we’ll share concrete examples of thinkLaw’s real-world, engaging questioning hooks that can help transform Tier 1 instruction. 
  • Step 2 (Winter 2024-2025): Invite a broader group of leaders to a follow-up planning meeting. We’ll strategize together about where and how to roll out a cohort partnership, along with ideas for building momentum pre institute and deepening the learning post-institute. 
  • Step 3 (Spring 2025): We’ll work together to identify the teachers and leaders you’ll need to be part of your movement, and help you to recruit highly motivated participants. Once you have a preliminary invite list, we’ll host a kick-off call to build excitement and spark thinking. We can also lead a kick-off PD series, book study for Tangible Equity or Thinking Like a Lawyer, or back-to-school keynote at convocation to build momentum for this work ahead of the institute.  

Amenities

  • Three resort pools with poolside food & beverage
  • Four on-site restaurants & bars
  • Complimentary evening s’mores around the firepits (5:30pm – 6:30pm, ask front desk for s’mores kit)
  • Live music at Rumorosa restaurant (Thu-Sun, 7pm-10pm)
  • Daily 1-hr bicycle or non-motorized rentals (kayaks, paddleboards, pedal boat) or 25% off motorized rentals
  • Daily fresh-air yoga class (9am – 10am)
  • Stand up paddleboard lessons & tour
  • Daily 1-hr tennis court rental for 2
  • Fitness center access
Day 1: Why do we need a movement?
  • 1:30 – 2:00pm: Registration 
  • 2:00 – 2:45pm: Working Session: What do we mean by “equity?”
  • 3:00 – 4:45pm: Working Session: Tangible Equity
  • 5:30 – 7:00pm: Welcome Mixer

Day 2: What does it take to lead a movement?

  • 8:00 – 8:50am: Breakfast Session + thinkStarter
  • 9:00 – 12:00pm: Working Session: Transforming Tier 1
  • 12:00 – 1:00pm: Lunch Session + thinkBigger
  • 1:00 – 4:00pm: Working Session: Building muscles for the movement
  • 6:00 – 8:00pm: Cohort Dinners

Day 3: How do we make the movement inevitable?

  • 8:00 – 8:50am: Breakfast Session + thinkStarter
  • 9:00 – 10:30am: Working Session: Calendaring the movement
  • 10:30 – 12:00pm: Working Session: Making the movement inevitable
  • 12:00 – 12:30pm: Lunch
  • 12:30 – 3:30pm: Cohort Working Sessions + Debriefs

Partnership Profiles

Successful cohorts will include a mix of 15+ teachers and leaders attending thinkLaw’s Annual Institute together, creating the conditions for a movement that YOUR team brings back to your district to lead and grow organically. Examples of cohorts in different settings include: 

Individual Schools
  • A building principal, an assistant principal, and instructional coaches.
  • Grade level leaders, department leaders, or PLC facilitators.
  • Teachers across several content areas.
  • Gifted coordinators, ELL coordinators, Intervention Specialists, counselors, etc.  
Districts with up to 5,000 students 
  • The superintendent and instructional cabinet leaders. 
  • Building principals and instructional leaders from each campus. 
  • 3-4 teachers representing each campus. 
Districts with more than 5,000 students 
  • A superintendent or assistant superintendent and instructional cabinet leaders.
  • Building principals and instructional leaders from 3 campuses (clustered by region or grade band, ie, middle schools). 
  • 3-4 teachers representing each campus.  
"If you continue to do the same things with slight tweaks, you’re gonna get slight adjustments. We need a shift, and the only way you’re gonna get a shift is with everybody moving in the right direction. So, it’s going to take a movement to get us where we need to be."
Administrator
Cohort: Silver Consolidated Schools, NM

All Partnerships Include:

A cohort of 15+ teachers and leaders learning together at thinkLaw’s annual institute (October 1st-3rd, 2025, San Diego).

Registration includes:

  • Virtual cohort kick-off session to launch the “moves” and the “movement”, including pre-institute reflection experiences.
  • 3 night’s stay at the beautiful Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, including resort fee and amenities like daily yoga and stand-up paddle boarding.
  • 5 meals, including a waterfront welcome reception, two breakfasts, and two lunches.
  • 3 days of workshops that prioritize active participation, practice, and application.
  • Copies of Colin Seale’s bestselling books, Thinking Like a Lawyer and Tangible Equity for each participant.
  • Post event cohort debrief and action-planning sessions, facilitated by thinkLaw but driven by cohort members to strategize, share wins, and expand their impact.
  • Access to thinkLaw’s job-alike communities of practice for movement-building support across districts and regions.

District-wide access to thinkLaw’s supplementary curriculum.

Curriculum includes:

  • Full access to thinkLaw’s standards-aligned, award-winning lessons that help educators unleash the critical thinking potential of ALL students. These rigorous and engaging lessons use real-life legal cases and current events in grades 3-12 and fairy tales and nursery rhymes for grades PreK-2. 
  • Support from our Partner Success team to help teachers and leaders find the right fit for our supplementary curricular resources, whether it’s advisory, an SEL block, homeroom, an elementary morning meeting, a gifted pullout or push-in class, an MTSS intervention block, or after school enrichment. 
  • Digital resource library with over 500 lessons, searchable by grade level, topic or theme, lesson type, and instructional strategy. Included are teacher guides, adaptable student sheets, slide decks, & tons of planning & instructional resources for teachers. 
  • Live virtual onboardings and follow-up implementation coaching and support.  

Learn more about thinkLaw curriculum and find sample lessons here. 

Partners can dig deeper with the following resources: 

In-person and virtual professional development.  

  • Launch the school year with Colin Seale as your convocation keynote speaker, setting the stage for a district-wide understanding of how high quality instructional moves aren’t “one more thing”, but are the thing that unlocks equity through Tier 1 instruction.  
  • A virtual workshop series for teachers to practice instructional strategies they can embed into your EXISTING curriculum, shifting the balance of class questions from “what” and “how” to “why” and “what if”.

Book study guides for Tangible Equity and Thinking Like a Lawyer 

  • Digital book study guides are a powerful way for cohort leaders to extend the learning to full departments, grade levels, PLC groups, and cabinet leadership teams, with practical tools for implementing instructional moves and growing the movement.  
  • Book studies can be facilitated flexibly, either as an introduction to a thinkLaw partnership or to extend the learning after the Institute. 
  • Book studies include a virtual 60-minute professional development session with Colin Seale. 

Parent and family workshops and supplementary resources 

  • Our Raising Critical Thinkers digital resources offer tools and support designed specifically for helping parents have conversations with their kids about important topics such as values & ethics, science & technology, politics, social issues, and more. This digital library can be made available to both teachers and families.
  • Our 60-minute workshops invite parents & families to dive into critical thinking topics & to follow up with the RCT digital library to make the strategies stick, because parents are uniquely qualified to teach their children essential critical thinking skills, mindsets, and habits children need for 21st century success. 
"What I love about this Institute is it’s not recreating the wheel, it’s not ‘one more thing.'"
Teacher
Cohort: Mattawan Consolidated Schools, MI